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0 pointsBrian_K_White3y ago0 comments

None of this and other differences disqualifies it as an alternative.

If it's possible to save and access files from any browser, from any location, set up an automatically syncing folder, and selectively share access with others, then you have an alternative to dropbox, and all the other cloud personal storage services. All of which nextcloud can do.

The differences just mean you don't prefer that particular alternative the same way as if you didn't like the color scheme, or more realistically say the need to make a microsoft account for onedrive, or the way google probably scans the contents of google drive etc.

They are all still alternatives with various pros & cons.

Setting up your own nextcloud on a publicly accessible service is no different.

The cons like effort and cost are noted.

The pro is there is no one else in control of your stuff and it's impossible to lose your account due to some age verification, or any other reason like "communiy standards" or billing dispute. The worst that can happen is your hosting provider can drop you, but that is a commodity and there are infinite other hosting providers and methods. Keep your own mirror so you don't care even if the hosting provider deletes everything.

If any alternative to dropbox has to be identical in every detail to qualify, then it has exactly the same problems as well. An alternative actually has to be different in some way or else it's not an alternative but just more of the same, and there is no point in that.

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encryptluks23y ago

> None of this and other differences disqualifies it as an alternative.

So your friend is in the market to buy a house and tells you about an issue with a particular realtor they are having, and you say...

"I got a great alternative, you can buy a piece of land, rezone it, get permits, go chop down your own wood, build your own house with your bare hands..."

They say to you, I hate my realtor... I don't hate my job. What you're suggesting as an alternative is more like saying that building your own car is an alternative to buying one. They aren't in the same league, and so while it makes sense for people to resell or offer Nextcloud as an option for self-hosted solutions or security, it makes no sense to try to say they are an alternative to Dropbox.

> The differences just mean you don't prefer that particular alternative the same way as if you didn't like the color scheme, or more realistically say the need to make a microsoft account for onedrive, or the way google probably scans the contents of google drive etc.

The differences doesn't mean that I don't like it, in fact I self host a lot of my own solutions. I'm just saying they don't really compare or compete.

Sure, if you want to purchase an array of servers that are distributed across multiple regions and setup a Ceph cluster to distribute storage in a resilient manner then go ahead. By all means do it, but to act like that somehow compares to purchasing a service that already does this is just misleading. After that person spends tens of thousands of dollars to replicate what Dropbox does, then they can finally have an alternative that they never thought of before paying $12/mo. for Dropbox.

Brian_K_WhiteOP3y ago

Hyperbole is not a valid argument.

Why didn't you go all the way and talk about declaring your own country on an asteroid? Because obviously what I suggested was to write nextcloud, in assembly, on a cpu architecture you invent.

No one has to write any software, or design or build any hosting system, those already exist. And they are even effortless common commodities. The land is already zoned and cleared and permitted, and the house is already designed, and even already built.

Popping a copy of already written and packaged software on a vps is some percent more work than creating a Google drive account, but that percent is not a million. Even if it's 500% more work, that is still trivial, 5x a few minutes. And even if you for some reason also need an insane availability garantee, it's hardly any more work to then put that behind a cdn, which are another low-effort commodity.

Without even looking, I garantee that there is a pre-made nextcloud droplet ready to go on DigitalOcean that takes mere seconds to activate, and they are surely not the only service provider with an equivalent app-on-a-stick ready to go in a few clicks like that.

And if their own backup offerings and network backbones aren't good enough already, without even looking I bet there is very little effort required to hook that up to CloudFlare.

And this is all while avoiding the probably even easier one-stop-shopping path of just using aws for everything, just because F Amazon.

Selecting a house built to order from a developer's catalog, or even buying land and hiring an architect, is indeed a perfectly exemplary alternative to buying an existing house from a realtor. Minus the stupid hyperbolic nonsense about rezoning, the example was in fact pretty good support of my point. Thank you!

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